We always seem to be doing something interesting with X-planes, but this one raises the bar — then hovers over it:

Pentagon wants a plane that can attain incredibly fast speeds while also possessing the ability to hover. The experimental Phantom Swift X-Plane will fulfill that role, and now Boeing has secured a $9 million to continue work it started roughly one year ago.

The idea for the aircraft, which resulted from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) VTOL X-Plane competition in 2013, will eventually be powered by an all-electric drive and measure 13 meters nose to tail and 15 meters from wingtip to wingtip, the military blog Defense Tech reported Aug. 28. The finished product is also expected to weight between 10,000 to 12,000 pounds.

I’m not exactly sure why we need a hover plane, but I know I want two of them.

Oh come on! You do stuff like this for best of all possible reasons, BECAUSE WE CAN!Followed by that greatest of scientific challenges, LETS SEE WHAT HAPPENS.Coming up with answers to questions we didn't even know existed yesterday is what makes us Human.

1) Don't need it. 2) Have stuff that does that already. 3) Electric ducted fans mean it'll be slow, heavy, and either need a turbine APU to power them (inefficient as hell) or a nuclear battery (good luck).

Reactors are far too heavy. RTGs can sorta work, though they're still pretty porky for large outputs. Odds favor a large turbine APU, which is about the stupidest method of powering an aircraft imaginable. Excluding perhaps powering one with cheese.